SOCCER.

Virginia's Fisher, Notre Dame's Daws Top Players

Virginia's Mike Fisher and Notre Dame's Cindy Daws completed their sweep of college soccer's top honors Thursday when they were named the Missouri Athletic Club's Players of the Year.

Neither Fisher, a Batavia native, nor Daws, of Northridge, Calif., realized their goal of a second national championship this season. Fisher's Cavaliers won the NCAA title his freshman year but never regained it, while the defending champion Fighting Irish lost a heartbreaking double-overtime final to North Carolina last month.

But the awards, determined by a nationwide poll of coaches, paid tribute to both senior midfielders' career achievements.

Daws scored the winning goal in the 1995 title game against the University of Portland, another double-overtime game, despite the cumulative effects of two years of chronic pain in a broken left foot held together by a metal screw. Healthy again this season, she notched 20 goals in leading Notre Dame to a 24-2 record and departs as the school's all-time scoring leader.

"I'm looking into playing overseas, but nothing's certain," Daws said by phone from St. Louis, where the award was announced.

She will graduate this spring with a degree in psychology and hopes to be asked to train with the U.S. national team again at some point. Daws broke her foot in a workout with the national team her freshman year before appearing in any games.

Fisher, Virginia's career points and assists leader and a biology major who will graduate this fall, is trying to decide between entering medical school and playing professional soccer.

Both players also won the prestigious Hermann Trophy this year--Fisher for the second straight time.

North Carolina senior forward Debbie Keller of Naperville, whose header in the 111th minute against Notre Dame cinched the NCAA title, finished second to Daws in the MAC balloting. Indiana senior goalkeeper Scott Coufal was runner-up to Fisher.